NFM Chapter 80

“Oh,” Chu Tianshu nodded, and after a while, he said, “Have we met somewhere before?”

“What?”

Chu Tianshu continued, “You look like you owe me a lot of money.”

“Huh?”

“It’s not that you have that look, but more like that kind of aura,” Chu Tianshu mumbled on his back. “Are you sure you don’t owe me a lot of money?”

Lin Huai endured and finally replied, “I owe your grandmother a leg.”

“Oh,” Chu Tianshu said, “Then remember to pay her back.”

Just as Lin Huai was about to lose his patience and throw Chu Tianshu off, a voice finally echoed in their minds: “Hidden mission: Destroy the statue has been completed. Teleportation will begin now. Three, two, one…”

Before Lin Huai could act on his thoughts, the system successfully stopped his intention… and in a way, saved Chu Tianshu’s life.

At the same time, other surviving players also received the system notification.

Yan Chuchu had escaped quickly during the battle at Qingxu Temple. She hid under a tree and endured the excruciating day. Upon receiving the news, she breathed a sigh of relief and disappeared into a beam of light.

Cheng Xin, however, was not so lucky. He was terrified by the red-robed Nether Being and accidentally fell off a cliff while fleeing. It seemed that when he returned to reality, he would suffer from a severe illness akin to pneumonia…

When Zhang Mingge opened his eyes, everything was already over.

The entire Qingxu Temple, after being baptized by blood and fire, was in a state of extreme decay. He walked through the temple in a daze, his eyes seeing only the traces left by the rampant Nether Beings.

“Chu Tianshu… and Lin Huai.”

He silently repeated these two names in his heart, lifting his head and etching them into his memory.

“We will meet again, someday in the future,” he thought coldly.

Even though he hadn’t figured out what he would do first when they met again—whether to defeat them or do something else.

As for another person… the driver, his fate was relatively more tragic.

After being dragged away by Lin Huai on a whim, he not only missed the bus back to the beginner camp but was also forced to follow a group of highly insane taskers through a rather unfriendly mission experience. However, when the mission ended, he sadly discovered…

He hadn’t been teleported back!

Pain and sorrow overwhelmed his heart. As for this uncle, whether he would become a driving instructor based on his rich driving experience, or a taxi driver, or one day, encounter a substitute teacher NPC named Cao Aimin from Minghua High School and fall in love with him… that was his own story… In this BL novel, the author would no longer elaborate on his life.

A day later.

The news of the Wang family’s massacre hadn’t yet spread throughout the village, but another latest rumor had already become common knowledge.

—That Ren Qiu of the Ren family had brought back a girl who looked very much like Ren Chun.

“…Ying Xia,” Aunt Sun hesitated before asking, “What’s the deal with that girl…? Why does she look so much like Ren Chun? So ghostly…”

She grew more fearful as she spoke: “Could it be… could it be… a ghost?”

“Aunt Sun,” Ying Xia said calmly, “Xiao Ran should be waking up soon. Please go check on her.”

“Right, right, I almost forgot the important thing.”

Aunt Sun slapped her thigh and was about to head into the room when she heard Ying Xia’s voice: “When she wakes up, please tell her… I’m sorry.”

His voice was soft, but Aunt Sun detected something else in it: “You…”

“I’m leaving,” Ying Xia said with a bitter smile.

“Oh. Your mother is coming to pick you up,” Aunt Sun said, “That’s good, that’s good.”

Then, she patted Ying Xia’s shoulder: “Listen to your mother. It’s good that someone is willing to take care of you. Ah, Ying Zi really… After remarrying, she hasn’t cared for you all these years…”

Ying Xia smiled faintly.

When he left Aunt Sun’s house, Ren Qiu and Ren Chun were already waiting for him at the door. He looked at them, his expression momentarily dazed.

Three years had passed, and Ren Chun still looked the same, while her younger brother had grown taller than her. Ying Xia blocked the gazes of a few people and whispered, “We probably can’t stay in Jiang Village anymore.”

His expression was slightly desolate, like a wandering bird that had suddenly realized it would soon be on the move again. Ren Qiu held his hand and said earnestly, “We’re in the same boat.”

“I’m sorry…” Ying Xia said.

He didn’t know why he had to say that, but it felt like there was nothing else to say between them. Ren Qiu just smiled and said, “Thank you.”

They didn’t say anything more. The red-robed girl stood behind them, quietly watching the street ahead.

Her face showed no sign of relaxation.

“Let’s go, sister,” Ren Qiu took her hand, “We’re going home.”

Then, with his other hand, he held Ying Xia’s.

The Ren family remained in the same state as yesterday. The red-robed girl stood at the doorstep, slightly opening her mouth but not saying a word.

Ren Qiu glanced at her cautiously and led her into the house.

“Mom is in the backyard,” he said.

A yellow paper cutout, carried by the wind, flew onto the girl’s face. She took off the paper and stared at the cutout, which depicted two people holding hands.

“A Chun?”

She heard an old voice calling.

“A Chun, is that you?”

She lowered her head and was startled when she saw the old woman eagerly reaching out to her. The woman extended her hands, but the girl looked at her right hand, took a step back, and shook her head.

The old woman immediately showed a disappointed expression. Ren Qiu then stepped forward to comfort her: “Mom, Chun Jie just awakened. She’ll get used to it after some time.”

“It’s okay, it’s okay, as long as you’re back, both of you are back…” the woman muttered.

The girl looked at her for a long time, and finally, she walked over. She pointed at her hand, shook her head, and then gently pressed her cheek against the woman’s cheek.

First the left cheek, then the right cheek.

Ren Qiu and Ren’s mother didn’t understand, but Ying Xia realized the girl’s thoughts in an instant.

She said she was too dirty.

She was still wearing the pure white dress she had died in, but the fabric was now stained with her own blood and that of her enemies—a mark she could never escape.

Her pain, her memories, her shame, and her hatred.

After Lin Huai and the others left, the fog that had enveloped Jiang Village gradually dissipated, but a thicker, deeper fog remained in the hearts of the people.

It still existed.

Whether it was in the sky above Jiang Village or in the hearts of the people… in Jiang Village.

Unless… they could leave this place, go somewhere, and slowly, in some way, forget the pain in their hearts.

But that wasn’t an easy task.

Ren Qiu led Ren Chun into the living room, introducing the changes in the house over the past three years. However, he was startled when he saw the table filled with items.

“These are…”

“These are what Brother Lin and the others left for us,” Ying Xia said, “Let’s… open them and see.”

The three of them gathered around the table and carefully opened the white gift boxes, revealing the contents one by one.

The first thing that appeared before them was a set of paper furniture, with the words “Turn into reality when soaked in water” written on it. Ren Qiu scratched his head as he looked at the furniture.

“This thing… looks interesting,” he said, “It really seems like something Brother Lin would prepare.”

From the second box, a pile of study materials was revealed. Among them were “Five Years of College Entrance Exams, Three Years of Simulation,” “Must-Do College Entrance Exam Questions,” “Tianli 38 Sets,” “Wang Houxiong,” “Xue Jinxing,” “Qu Yixian,” “Wang Deji,” and other names that Chinese students both loved and hated.

At the top of the box, written in black ballpoint pen with a flourish, were the words: “Study hard, improve every day, learn more law, protect yourself. If you encounter similar things in the future, fight back hard (crossed out) resolve it through legal means…”

“This…” Ren Qiu looked at the messily scribbled card, somewhat helpless, “This… really is Brother Lin and Brother Chu’s style.”

Then, he opened the third box. Unlike the first two boxes, this one was extremely thin and long. Ren Qiu opened the long box, and inside was a property deed and a key.

The property deed was for the city Ying Xia had once dreamed of living in… many years ago.

When the address came into view, Ying Xia’s eyes moistened. Inside the box was still a small card, which read: “Can’t sell it, but you can live in it. Study hard, don’t think about flipping houses all day, the key is yours, remember to live there. P.S. Beijing is a great place, except for the daily sandstorms.”

He turned his body to cover his eyes. Ren Qiu patted his shoulder and opened the fourth box.

The fourth box was more like an envelope than a gift box. Inside the envelope were four train tickets. The moment Ren Qiu touched the tickets, four names appeared one by one on them.

Ren Qiu, Ren Chun, Ren’s mother, and Ying Xia.

As usual, a small card fell out of the envelope. Through the neat handwriting on the card, one could almost see the face of the person who wrote it while biting the pen: “Ah… someone insisted I write one of these, so I’ll just scribble something… How are you supposed to use these nameless train tickets? This game has no common sense at all. It can’t be that you just press your finger on it and it recognizes your name… By the way, there are three of you, right? At most three people and one ghost, even ghosts have to buy tickets, what kind of harmonious society is this? The card is running out of space, so that’s it, go wherever you want. And—”

Ren Qiu flipped the card over: “—Pork prices have gone up again, eat more vegetables.”

Ren Qiu: …

For some reason, the salty tears that were about to flow were immediately swallowed back… Ren Qiu wiped his eyes. He looked at the departure time, which was clearly marked as tomorrow.

…Tomorrow.

Salty liquid filled his eyes again. Ren Qiu picked up the tickets and walked to the backyard: “Mom, pack your things. We can leave here by train tomorrow!”

Meanwhile, behind him, Ying Xia opened the last gift box.

Upon seeing the contents, he smiled and handed the box to the red-robed girl beside him: “This is for you.”

—For me?

The red-robed girl tilted her head and took the box. Ying Xia patted her head and then walked into the yard to find Ren Qiu.

After he left, the red-robed girl finally opened the box, and she was stunned the moment she saw its contents.

—It was something she hadn’t had for a long, long time.

The previously confused red-robed girl lowered her head and quietly looked into the box.

Inside the box lay something soft.

—A white dress.

She took a deep breath and pressed her face against the dress. After a while, she lifted her head.

Making sure no one was around, she reached out and slowly, bit by bit, used her fingertips to hook the white dress from the edge.

Pure white, clean, soft, like the sky.

She touched it very carefully, as if touching it too much would make the snow-white dress dirty and muddy.

Just as she finally lifted the dress, a small card fell out from within it.

The card fluttered like a petal and landed in her palm.

She looked down at the card.

The card was written by two people, one with neat handwriting, the other with wild strokes. It read: “Even if you’re covered in scars, you’re still pure.”

And on the back of the card, it said: “Don’t listen to his nonsense, I still think red looks better.”

The signature was “L&C.”

She stared at the card for a long time, and finally, she carefully unfolded the dress and held it against her chest. The red-robed Fierce Ghost faced the full-length mirror, closed her eyes, and hummed a song softly, gently swaying her body.

As if, in a corner where no one could see, she was dancing with herself.

“Speaking of which, the system is really cunning…” Lin Huai, on the other hand, rested his chin on his hand and sat on the sofa in the system space, thinking, “Using my money to send gifts to NPCs, this is really…”

Thinking this, Lin Huai let out a dissatisfied sigh and stretched.

“This is really, in a way, the system’s happy ending? Taking four train tickets to wander the world, then study hard, improve every day…”

As he said this, he looked up at his system panel.

“System,” he said, “Show me my personal data… and by the way…”

“Since I was a good guy this time,” Lin Huai scratched his head, “Can you let me draw something useful?”